Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. \5\ 



would be obtained at the same time, in the usual manner, on the 

 supposition that the pivots are perfectly cylindrical, are certain func- 

 tions of 2, which may be assumed to remain constant throughout 



the year. A table of these differences multiplied by — ^^ ^^^—^ — '- 



being formed, in which the argument is the north polar distance, any 

 observed time of transit is first to be corrected by a quantity derived 

 by interpolation from this table, and then the remaining reduction 

 to meridian transit may be effected, by obtaining the collimation, 

 level, and azimuth errors, and applying corrections on account of 

 them, by the ordinary processes. 



XXI. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



DR. BIALLOBLOTZKY'.S JOURNEY TO DISCOVER THE SOURCES 

 OF THE NILE. 



DR. BEKE has recently addressed to the subscribers to Dr. Bial- 

 loblotzky's projected exploratory journey into Eastern Africa, a 

 circular letter, announcing that he has remitted to that traveller, who 

 is now in Egypt, the funds necessary for enabling him to return 

 home, and submitting to them a general and final statement of the 

 sums received by him and of their appropriation. 



Dr. Beke adds that the labours of the Church Missonaries stationed 

 at Rabbai Empia, near Mombas, seem likely to result in the realiza- 

 tion of the views as to the geography of Eastern Africa, which were 

 enunciated by him in the year 1846, and which Dr. Bialloblotzky's 

 expedition was intended to verify. 



Already has the Rev. Mr. Rebmann, in his several exploratory 

 journeys, discovered, in about 3'^ 40' S. lat. and 36° E. long., a lofty 

 mountain, named Kilimandjaro, whose summit is covered with per- 

 petual snow, and obtained information resj)ecting a region further in 

 the interior, called Uniamdsi, or " the country of the Moon ;" and he 

 has further ascertained the existence, in Uniamesi, of a large lake, 

 which is not (as has been supposed) identical with Nydssi or " the 

 Sea" — the great lake of Southern Africa, commonly known as lake 

 Maravi — but from its name, Usambiro, is apparently the Lake Zambre 

 of the Portuguese of the 16th and 17th centuries. 



On the other hand, the Egyptian expeditions for exploring the 

 Upper Nile have ascended the river as far as the fourth parallel of 

 north latitude, where they have found it to be still a very large stream, 

 about 2000 feet in breadth during the rains ; and as the country of 

 Uniamesi (or Mono-Moezi) may be approximatively placed in 2° to 4° 

 S. lat. and 29° to 34° E. long., the head of the Nile would, by its 

 course being extended only 300 or 400 miles beyond the extreme 

 point reached by the Egyptian expeditions, be brought near if not 

 into this country of Uniamesi. 



Should it really be the case that the Nile rises in the snow-capped 

 Kilimandjaro or other similar mountains, in the vicinity of the lake 

 in " the country of the Moon," the fact would be almost litereJly in 



